Page:St. Nicholas, vol. 40.1 (1912-1913).djvu/587



quite one hundred years before Columbus set out to discover our country, a little boy, who was destined to be one of the famous captains of Venice, was born in a little town of Italy.

This boy’s father was the owner of a strong fortress, and was quite a powerful man. But before the little Colleoni had time to grow up, enemies came and robbed his father of this home, so that our hero, and his father, and his older brothers, were all obliged to go out into the world to seek their fortunes.

The boy we are interested in became a soldier, and, from the beginning, he showed himself clever as well as daring. It was not such a great many years, indeed, before he was put at the head of other soldiers, and called captain, or “condottiere.”

Now a captain of those days was a very different thing from a captain of to-day. It was the fashion to go into the business of soldiering, just as a boy to-day will go into any occupation or trade. The great thing was to kill as many men belonging to the enemy as you could, and not to be afraid of being killed yourself.

Our Colleoni did not know anything about such a thing as fear, and that was very fine. What is more, he had a knack of making wise and successful manœuvers, and this soon made him a popular man. But it 1s not quite so fine to have to tell of him that, so long as he could keep busy fighting, it did not seem to matter to him whom he was fighting against. For a long time he was employed by the Duke of Milan, but when a quarrel came about between Milan and Venice, and the Venetians offered Colleoni a goodly sum of money to fight on their side, he accepted their offer, and seems to have fought with just as much vim against his old friend as if he had been a perfectly new foe.

In fact, I am afraid this captain cared more for two things in this world than for anything else; and those two things were glory and money.

And both money and glory came his way. For, besides being so brave, he used “a prudence and foresight above the captains of his time.” It would take too long to tell of all the battles he took part in, and it would be a harder matter to say offhand whether, in his long career, he did more good or more harm to Venice. But the people were sure his campaigns were good, and so by the time he was fifty-four years old, they made him commander-in-chief of all their forces.

By the time he was seventy, he was so rich that he was able to retire to Malpaga, where he had a grand castle in the country. And there for a few years more, he lived with as much pomp and parade as if he had been a prince.

Now, a little before this time, there lived in a near-by city another famous captain. The name of the city was Padua, and the name of the cap